JP2012155666A - Print control unit, print control program and print control method - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To avoid a recording medium from being consumed uselessly while remaining a user desired sentence style by deleting unnecessary blank pages while remaining blank pages practically useful for separating sentences.SOLUTION: A print control unit includes a page-shift information acquisition section 121 which acquires page-shift information defining a page division switching pages of a manuscript regarding print data to be printed on a recording medium by a printing apparatus 2, a blank page detection section 123 which detects a blank page on which an image to be printed is not present, among pages of the manuscript on the basis of the page-shift information, a page attribute determination section 122 which analyzes an image such as a character or a graphic included in a page for each page on the basis of the page-shift information, detects a predetermined keyword or graphic and determines an attribute of each page on the basis of a result of the detection, and a deletion execution section 124 which refers to an attribute of a page next to the detected blank page and deletes the blank page from print data in accordance with a result of the reference.

Description

  The present invention relates to a print control unit, a print control program, and a print control method for controlling output of print data printed on a recording medium.

  Conventionally, in a printing apparatus that prints on a recording medium, print data such as text data and image data is input from an externally connected host computer, digital camera, etc., and various printing methods such as a laser method and an ink jet method are used. The data is expanded into printable print data and printed on a recording medium.

  By the way, in the text data, in order to arrange the text format, the text is often divided using a plurality of text chapters such as “chapter” and “section”, and the document data including such text separator is printed. In this case, it is desirable that the last page of the previous chapter and the first page of the next chapter are not printed on the same recording medium.

  Therefore, as a technique for adjusting the appearance of the printed text, for example, as in the technique disclosed in Patent Document 1, it is proposed to detect a text break and insert a blank page at the chapter boundary. Has been.

  On the other hand, for example, Patent Documents 2 and 3 also propose to automatically delete unnecessary blank pages for paper reduction. In the technique disclosed in Patent Document 2, when a blank page exists in the print data, the information processing apparatus side suppresses output of the blank page at once. Further, in the technique disclosed in the cited document 3, when a print page and an interleave sheet are output, the blank page portion of the print page is deleted.

JP 2003-91521 A Japanese Patent No. 4461429 JP 2005-349807 A

  Therefore, as in the technique disclosed in Patent Document 1, when printing text data in which white paper is inserted at the chapter breaks, the technique disclosed in Patent Documents 2 and 3 described above is used to reduce paper. When automatic page deletion is performed, blank pages that should be left as text breaks are also uniformly deleted, and there is a problem in that printed matter as intended by the user cannot be created.

  The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and an object of the present invention is to control the output of print data printed on a recording medium while the user intends to leave a useful blank page for separating sentences. An object of the present invention is to provide a print control unit, a print control program, and a print control method that can delete unnecessary blank pages.

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides:
In controlling the output of print data of a document printed on a recording medium by a printing apparatus (for example, the printing apparatus 2 in FIG. 1),
With respect to the print data, page break information that defines page classifications in which pages of the document are switched (for example, in the page break information acquisition unit 121 in FIG. 3) is acquired (for example, step 201 in FIG. 7 and step S301 in FIG. 8).
Based on the page break information, a blank page in which no image to be printed exists in each page of the document (for example, the blank page detection unit 123 in FIG. 3) is detected (for example, step 202 in FIG. 7 and step in FIG. 8). S302),
Based on the page break information, for each page, the image included in the page is analyzed to determine the attribute of each page (for example, the page attribute determination unit 122 in FIG. 3) (for example, step 203 in FIG. 7, Step S304 in FIG.
Referring to the attribute determined for the next page of the detected blank page, the attribute of the next page corresponds to a specific attribute that does not require the placement of the blank page on the previous page (for example, a page other than the chapter start page) In this case, a process of deleting the blank page before the next page from the document is added to the print data (for example, by the deletion execution unit 124 in FIG. 3) (for example, step 204 in FIG. 7 and step S305 in FIG. 8). ,
It is characterized by that.

  According to the above invention, the print data is divided in units of pages, and it is detected whether each page is a blank page. When a blank page is detected, the blank page is deleted according to the attribute of the next page of the page. Determine whether or not. The attribute of the next page may be determined from, for example, a keyword included in the next page. As a result, if the attribute of the next page corresponds to the start page of a chapter that begins with a sentence containing keywords such as “chapter” or “section”, the blank page is used as a useful section break for sentence separation. If the next page attribute is not the start page of the chapter, it is a page corresponding to a specific attribute that does not require the placement of a blank page on the previous page. The previous blank page can be determined to be unnecessary and can be deleted.

  When the attribute of the next page is determined by a keyword, the keyword includes, for example, “number [number] chapter”, “[number] chapter”, “number [number] section”, “ [Numeric] milestones, “[Numeral] subsections”, “[Numeric] subsections”, or “No. [Numeric] subsections” are included. As a method for detecting this keyword, various methods such as a method of analyzing a character code and an optical character reading method (OCR) can be employed.

  Further, in the above invention, before adding processing for deleting a blank page before the next page from the original to the print data, a print mode for defining the layout assignment of each page of the original with respect to the print surface of the recording medium is set (for example, 3), and according to the detected print mode, the allocation of the blank page and the next page to the recording medium is analyzed, and as a result, the blank page is placed on the surface of the recording medium in duplex printing. When arranged (for example, YES in step S303 in FIG. 8), even when the attribute of the next page does not correspond to the specific attribute, processing for deleting the blank page before the next page from the document is added to the print data. (For example, step S305 in FIG. 8) is preferable.

  In this case, when the blank page is arranged on the surface of the recording medium in double-sided printing, the deletion execution unit deletes the previous blank page even if the next page is, for example, the chapter start page. For this reason, for example, in the printing mode for printing on both sides of the recording medium, a blank page for sentence separation can be left when it is useful, and can be deleted together with a blank page that is not for sentence separation when it is unnecessary.

  The present invention described above can be realized as a print control unit, a print control method, and a program described in a predetermined language and executed on a computer.

  When the present invention is realized by a program, a print control unit that realizes the present invention can be easily constructed by installing the program on a computer such as a user terminal or a Web server or an IC chip and executing the program on the CPU. Can do.

  This program can be distributed through, for example, a communication line, and can be transferred as a package application that operates on a stand-alone computer by being recorded on a recording medium readable by a general-purpose computer.

  Specifically, the recording medium can be recorded on various recording media such as a RAM card in addition to a magnetic recording medium such as a flexible disk or a cassette tape, or an optical disk such as a CD-ROM or DVD-ROM.

  According to the computer-readable recording medium in which the program is recorded, the above-described print control unit and print control method can be easily implemented using a general-purpose computer or a dedicated computer, and the program Storage, transportation and installation can be performed easily.

  According to the present invention, when controlling the output of print data to be printed on a recording medium, by leaving unnecessary blank pages for sentence separation, deleting unnecessary blank pages that are not intended by the user, It is possible to avoid unnecessary consumption of the recording medium while maintaining the appearance of the text desired by the user.

1 is a conceptual diagram illustrating an overall configuration of a print control unit according to an embodiment of the present invention. It is a block diagram which shows the internal structure of the user terminal of FIG. It is a functional block virtually constructed on the driver of the user terminal of FIG. It is explanatory drawing which shows the printing control screen displayed on the display screen of the user terminal of FIG. It is explanatory drawing which shows the example of the search keyword corresponding to the classification of the chapter unit input into the input box of "chapter break" of FIG.4 (c). It is a flowchart figure which shows the outline | summary of the printing process which concerns on one Embodiment of this invention. It is a flowchart figure which shows the printing control process at the time of the single-sided printing in step S107 of FIG. It is a flowchart figure which shows the printing control process at the time of double-sided printing in step S107 of FIG.

  Hereinafter, embodiments of a print control unit, a print control program, and a print control method according to the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. Here, a case where the print control program of the present invention is installed in a user terminal as a driver and the user terminal is used as a print control unit will be described as an example.

(Overall configuration of printing system)
FIG. 1 is a conceptual diagram showing an overall configuration of a printing system including a printing control unit according to the present embodiment. The print control unit in the present embodiment is configured by installing a driver, which is a print control program of the present invention, in the user terminal 1 (1a to 1c).

  The user terminal 1 (1a to 1c) is an arithmetic processing unit equipped with a CPU, and can be realized by a general-purpose computer such as a personal computer or a dedicated device with specialized functions, such as a mobile computer or a PDA (Personal Digital). Assistance) or a mobile phone.

  In the present embodiment, as shown in FIG. 1, a printing apparatus 2, a printer server 3, and a plurality of user terminals 1 (1 a to 1 c) are connected to a network 7. The network 7 is a wireless network such as a local network (LAN) or a wireless LAN (WLAN) based on 10BASE-T or 100BASE-TX using the communication protocol TCP / IP. For example, a home network based on peer-to-peer Simple networks such as are also included. The printing apparatus 2 is a network printer that prints job data (print data) received from the user terminal 1 via the printer server 3 via the network 7 in accordance with a print instruction based on a user operation.

(User terminal configuration)
FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing an internal configuration of the user terminal 1, and FIG. 3 is a functional block virtually constructed on the arithmetic processing unit 10 of the user terminal 1 by installing the driver 110. The “module” used in the present embodiment is configured by hardware such as an apparatus or device, software having the function, or a combination thereof, and a functional unit for achieving a predetermined operation. Indicates.

  As shown in FIG. 2, the user terminal 1 includes an arithmetic processing unit 10 that performs various arithmetic processes, a hard disk 11 that stores data such as data and an execution program, and data, operation signals, and images for the user terminal 1. An output interface 12 and an input interface 13 for inputting / outputting audio signals and the like, a communication interface 14 for performing communication via the network 7, and a bus 15 for connecting these modules.

  The output interface 12 and the input interface 13 are data transfer modules including external terminals for inputting / outputting data, video / audio signals, and the like. Specifically, the output interface 12 and the input interface 13 are a display device such as a display 16, a flexible disk drive, a CD- Commonly used devices such as ROM drives, hard disk drives, input devices such as a mouse 13a and a keyboard 13b are connected, and data and signals are transmitted and received in a signal format suitable for each device. The communication interface 14 is a communication interface that transmits and receives data to and from the printing apparatus 2, and performs data communication by, for example, a serial method or a USB method.

  The hard disk 11 is a storage device that accumulates various data, and stores data input from an input device such as a mouse 13a and a keyboard 13b, and results of arithmetic processing by the arithmetic processing unit 10. The hard disk 11 also stores keywords and figures that determine the attributes of each page in the print data.

  The arithmetic processing unit 10 is an arithmetic device that includes a processor, a memory, and other peripheral devices. In particular, in this embodiment, the OS 101 is executed on the arithmetic processing unit 10, the application 102 is executed on the OS 101, and the driver 110 that controls the units 11 to 14 is executed by the OS 101. A print control unit that controls the output of print data to be printed on the recording medium by the printing apparatus 2 is virtually constructed by starting a print control program, which will be described later, on the arithmetic processing unit 10. It can function as a control unit.

  The driver 110 is a print control program that is executed on the user terminal 1 in order to control the printing apparatus 2 connected to the user terminal 1, and normally, for example, an application 102 such as word processing software in the user terminal 1. The original data created in step 1 is acquired, print data, which is image data for printing, is generated according to predetermined print setting information, sent to the printing apparatus 2 as job data, and the printing apparatus 2 executes printing processing. When the user performs an operation for instructing print control to delete a blank page, the driver 110 determines whether or not to delete the blank page for the document data related to printing, and determines whether or not to delete the blank page from the print data. Execute the process to delete the page.

(Configuration of driver 110)
As shown in FIG. 3, in the present embodiment, the driver 110 includes a control unit 111, a data conversion unit 112, a blank paper output control module 120, and a print data transmission unit 113.

  The control unit 111 is a module that controls the entire operation of the driver 110. Specifically, based on the print setting data D1, in addition to data conversion and data transmission / reception for normal print processing, a blank paper output control module 120 is provided. The blank page output control process for deleting the blank page of the print data D3 is also controlled. The print setting data D1 includes information necessary for normal printing, such as a print mode, document data size, resolution, print paper size, and print direction.

  The data conversion unit 112 is a module that converts document data D2 acquired from application software into print data D3 including image data, and is controlled by the control unit 111. During normal printing, the data conversion unit 112 sends the converted print data D3 as it is to the job data D4 via the print data transmission unit 113 and sends it to the printing apparatus 2, and the user instructs print control. In this case, the converted print data D3 is sent to the blank paper output control module 120.

  The print data transmission unit 113 includes the print data D3 converted by the data conversion unit 112 or the print data D3 ′ from which the blank page has been deleted by the blank page output control module 120 as the final print data in the job data D4. And a module to be sent to the printing apparatus 2.

  The blank page output control module 120 is a module group that executes a process of deleting a blank page from the print data D3 according to a user operation. As shown in FIG. 3, the page break information acquisition unit 121, the page attribute determination unit, and the like. 122, a blank page detection unit 123, a deletion execution unit 124, and a print mode detection unit 125.

  The page break information acquisition unit 121 is a module that acquires page break information that defines page classifications in which pages of a document are switched with respect to the print data D3. In the present embodiment, the page break information is, for example, information on a line break mark or page break mark in the document data D2, or the number of characters, character size, line spacing, line number, paper included in the print setting data D1. This is information calculated from the size and the like. If the page break information cannot be obtained from the document data D2, the page break information acquisition unit 121 analyzes the image data of the print data D3 converted by the data conversion unit 112, and determines the size of the image data and the paper size. The page break information may be detected based on the comparison.

  For example, when there is a page break mark in the document data D2, the page break information acquisition unit 121 determines that the line where the page break mark exists is the last line of the page even if it is not the last line on the format. . In addition, the page break information acquisition unit 121 includes the amount of data in the document data D2 that fits in the area of one page from the number of characters, character size, line spacing, line number, paper size, etc. included in the print setting data D1. When it is determined that the number exceeds, it is recognized as a page break. When the line feed mark continues in the document data D2, the page break information acquisition unit 121 recognizes this as a page break when it determines that the number of lines exceeds the number of lines that can fit on one page. .

  The page attribute determination unit 122 divides the print data D3 into pages based on the page break information acquired by the page break information acquisition unit 121, and analyzes character strings, figures, and images included in the page for each page. In this module, predetermined keywords and graphics are detected, and attributes of each page are determined based on the detection result. In the present embodiment, the attribute of each page includes information on whether or not the start position of the chapter unit constituting the sentence is included.

  The chapter unit can be arbitrarily set by the user on a setting screen displayed on the display 16 (see FIG. 2) of the user terminal 1, for example, as shown in FIGS. That is, when the “blank paper output suppression” menu is selected by checking the check box on the setting screen shown in FIG. 4A, the input frame portion of “output management” becomes active as shown in FIG. Input setting is possible. Therefore, as shown in FIG. 4C, the check box of “Output blank for section separation” is checked, and “Chapter” and “Edit” as keywords are input in the “Chapter section separation” input box. Thus, a search keyword for determining page attributes can be set.

  As the type of chapter unit input in the “chapter section” input box in FIG. 4C, for example, as shown in FIG. There are words and symbols indicating the unit to be separated, such as “eye”.

  Then, the page attribute determination unit 122 uses, for example, the first line including characters in the text of each page as a search keyword using the phrase or symbol input in the “chapter break” input box in FIG. The character string described is searched to determine whether a search keyword is included. When the search keyword is included, the page to be searched is recognized as the page corresponding to the beginning of the chapter break and is determined to be a page having the chapter break attribute.

  For example, when the character “hen” is set as the search keyword, as shown in FIG. 5, the characters “first part”, “middle part”, and “second part” including the letters “hen” are shown. When a column exists in, for example, the first row of a page, the page is determined to have a chapter break attribute.

  For example, when the character “chapter” is set as a search keyword, a character string such as “number [number] chapter” or “[number] chapter” including the character “chapter” is displayed on the page. When it exists in the first line, it is determined as a page having the section break attribute.

  Similarly, when characters such as “section”, “section”, and “eyes” are set as search keywords, “number [number]” including the characters “section”, “section”, and “eyes” Does the first line of the page contain a string such as "section", "[number] section", "number [number] section", "[number] section", or "number [number] section"? It may be determined whether or not the page has a section break attribute based on the result.

  [Numeric] can include various numbers such as full-width / half-width Arabic numerals (example: 1, 2, 3, etc.) and Chinese numerals (example: 1, 2, 3, etc.). As a method for detecting this keyword, various methods such as a method of analyzing a character code and an optical character reading method (OCR) can be employed.

  The blank page detection unit 123 is a module that detects a blank page that does not have an image to be printed out of each page of the document based on the page break information. Specifically, the blank page detection unit 123 determines that a portion in which an image such as a character or a graphic in the document data D2 is written is within the range. For example, for the background image, the header, and the footer, the predetermined range is set. Judge that it is outside. Then, when the predetermined range of each page is analyzed, and when an image such as a character or graphic is not described, it is determined that the page is a blank page, and an image such as a character or graphic is described within the predetermined range Is not a blank page.

  The print mode detection unit 125 is a module that detects print mode information that defines the layout assignment of each page of the document with respect to the print surface of the recording medium. This print mode includes, for example, a duplex printing mode in which page sections are assigned to both front and back surfaces of a recording medium, and a printing mode in which a plurality of page sections are assigned to one or both front and back printing surfaces of a recording medium.

  For example, the print mode detection unit 125 detects the print mode information from the print setting data D1, or analyzes the image data of the document data D2 or the converted print data D3 to automatically estimate the print mode. You may do it.

  The deletion execution unit 124 is a module that deletes unnecessary blank pages from the print data D3 in accordance with user operations based on the detection results of the blank page detection unit 123 and the print mode detection unit 125. In the present embodiment, as shown in FIG. 4, the “blank paper output suppression” function of the window (see FIG. 4A) displayed on the setting screen of the display 16 (see FIG. 2) is selected by a user operation. In such a case (see FIG. 4B), the deletion execution unit 124 executes a process of deleting blank pages at once.

  In this blank page output control, the deletion execution unit 124 refers to the attribute determined by the page attribute determination unit 122 for the next page of the blank page detected by the blank page detection unit 123, and selects a blank page according to the reference result. Delete from the print data D3.

  Specifically, as shown in FIG. 4 (b), an item for outputting a chapter segmentation blank of the window displayed on the setting screen is selected by a user operation, and as shown in FIG. 4 (c), When the attributes (“hen” and “section”) of the separator where the blank page is to be left are input, the page attribute determination unit 122 performs page attribute analysis.

  In this case, the deletion execution unit 124 refers to the attribute of the next page of the blank page, and the attribute of the next page is the start page of a chapter such as “Edit” or “Section” (does not correspond to a specific attribute). Sometimes, it is determined that the blank page is a blank page for separation, and deletion processing is not executed. If the attribute of the next page is other than the chapter start page (corresponding to a specific attribute), the blank page is displayed. The page is determined to be an unnecessary blank page, and the blank page is deleted.

  In addition, even when the attribute of the next page is the start page of the chapter, the deletion execution unit 124, depending on the print mode detected by the print mode detection unit 125, has a blank page of the previous page under certain conditions. The function to delete is also provided.

  The print mode detection unit 125 automatically determines whether or not the blank paper output control is necessary according to a print mode such as single-sided printing, double-sided printing, or multi-page printing. The user can set whether or not the automatic determination function is necessary, and according to the user setting, the automatic determination of the necessity of the blank page output control by the print mode detection is performed and the necessity of the blank page output control by the attribute of the next page is determined. It is also possible to decide whether or not to execute in priority to.

  Specifically, even when the “blank paper output suppression” function is selected by the user (see FIG. 4B) in the window (see FIG. 4A) of the display 16 (see FIG. 2), for example, the print mode is changed. In the case of duplex printing, when a certain condition is satisfied, the execution of the “blank paper output suppression” function is automatically canceled, and the blank page is uniformly deleted by the deletion execution unit 124 regardless of the attribute. It can also be configured to be.

  More specifically, if the print mode detection unit 125 does not use the automatic determination function for whether or not blank paper output control is required, when a blank page is detected, the blank page is deleted if the attribute of the next page is not the start page of the chapter. If the attribute of the next page is the start page of a chapter, the blank page is left without being deleted.

  On the other hand, when the automatic determination function of whether or not the blank mode output control is required by the print mode detection unit 125 is used, when a blank page is detected when the print mode is single-sided printing, the blank mode output control by the print mode detection unit 125 is performed. As in the case of not using the automatic discrimination function, if a blank page is detected, the blank page is deleted if the next page attribute is not the chapter start page, and the next page attribute is the chapter start page. If so, leave the blank page without deleting it. However, if a blank page is detected when the print mode is duplex printing, the attributes of the next page and the page number of the blank page (odd page = right-sided page or even page = left-sided page) Page). If the blank page is the odd-numbered page, it is deleted even if the attribute of the next page is the chapter start page.

  In the present embodiment, the print control unit is configured as the driver 110 installed in the user terminal 1, and unnecessary blank pages are deleted at the stage of the print data D3. It is not limited.

  That is, the document data D2 created by an application such as word processing software is converted into print data D3, and output to the printing apparatus 2 via the printer server 3 as job data, whereby a print process using the document data D2 is executed. It is only necessary to delete unnecessary blank pages at any of the stages described above. For example, as a function included in the application 102, blank page deletion processing may be executed at the stage of the document data D2, and a job received from the user terminal as a function provided in the printing apparatus 2 or the printer server 3 may be used. Blank page deletion processing may be executed at the stage of data D4.

(Print control method)
By operating the print control unit having the above configuration, the print control method of the present invention can be implemented. FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing an overview of the printing process according to the present embodiment. In the present embodiment, a case where document data D2, which is a document file created by application software such as word processing software, is printed by a printing apparatus will be described as an example.

  First, when the printing process is executed on the application side, an instruction to start printing is issued from the application software to the driver 110, and the document data D2 and the print setting data D1 are sent to the driver 110 (step S101). In response to this print start instruction, the data converter 112 of the driver 110 converts the input document data D2 into print data D3 including image data for printing (step S102). At this time, the control unit 111 acquires the print setting data D1, and determines whether or not print control (blank page output control) for deleting a blank page is requested (step S103).

  If it is determined that page deletion is not requested (NO in step S103), it is determined that normal printing is performed, and normal printing processing is executed (step S104). In this normal printing process, even if blank data is included in the print data D3, job data D4 including the print data D3 as it is without being processed (without deleting blank data) is generated.

  On the other hand, if it is determined that blank paper output control is requested (YES in step S103), a blank paper output control process is executed (step S105). In this blank page output control process, the print data D3 is sent from the data converter 112 to the blank page output control module 120. In the blank page output control module 120, when the print data D3 includes blank page data, the blank page data is deleted if the deletion condition is satisfied, and job data D4 including the processed print data D3 'is generated.

  The generated job data D4 is sent to the printing apparatus 2 on the network 7 via the printer server 3 by the control unit 111 controlling the print data transmission unit 113 (step S106). In the printing apparatus 2, the printing process is executed based on the print data D3 or the print data D3 'included in the input job data D4 (step S107).

  Here, the blank paper output control process processed in step 105 will be described in detail. FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing the blank page output control process performed in step S105 in FIG. 6 when the user sets not to delete the blank page for section separation.

  Here, it is assumed that the blank pages for “chapter” and “section” are deleted by user operation, and the blank pages for “chapter” and “section” are set to be output. To do. Therefore, in the original data D2, when a blank page is inserted every time a chapter is revised, the blank page for section separation is not deleted during single-sided printing or double-sided printing.

  Specifically, in the blank page output control module 120 to which the print data D3 is sent from the data conversion unit 112, the page break information acquisition unit 121 defines a page classification that defines the page classification on which the print surface of the recording medium is switched with respect to the print data D3. Get page information. Then, the page break information is sent to the blank page detection unit 123. The blank page detection unit 123 recognizes the break for each page of the print data D3 from the page break information of the input print data D3, and accordingly, the print data D3 is sequentially printed from the first page by one page. The entire page is read (step S201), and it is determined whether or not the current page is a blank page with no characters, graphics, images, etc. (step S202).

  If the current page is not a blank page (NO in step S202), the next page is referred to and loop processing is performed until a blank page is detected (steps S201 to S202). On the other hand, if the current page is a blank page (YES in step S202), whether or not the attribute of the next page of the blank page is “chapter” or the start page of a chapter section separated by “section”. Is determined by the page attribute determination unit 122 (step S203).

  If the attribute of the next page is the chapter start page (YES in step S203), it is determined whether the blank page has not been deleted and the last page has been processed (step S205). On the other hand, when the attribute of the next page is not the start page of the chapter (NO in step S203), the blank page is deleted from the print data D3 by the deletion execution unit 124 (step S204), and it is determined whether the process has been processed up to the last page. (Step S205).

  If the last page has not been processed (NO in step S205), the process from step 201 to step 204 is executed with reference to the next page. On the other hand, if the last page has been processed (YES in step S205), the blank paper output control process ends.

  In the blank page output control process shown in the flowchart of FIG. 7, blank page data inserted for separation before the chapter start page is not deleted on the original data D2 in both the simplex printing mode and duplex printing mode. Blank data that is not used for section separation is deleted. Therefore, in the case of single-sided printing, one blank page is inserted before the chapter start page, and in the case of double-sided printing, one blank page is inserted before the chapter start page.

  Here, when viewing the printed contents of each page with the recording medium (recording paper) overlapped by double-sided printing, the back side of the previous recording medium and the front side of the next recording medium are the left and right pages of the facing page. Respectively.

  Therefore, when a blank page inserted before the chapter start page on the document data D2 is laid out on the left page of the spread, the chapter start page laid out on the right page of the spread is arranged on the surface of the recording medium. Will be.

  On the other hand, when a blank page inserted before the chapter start page on the original data D2 is laid out on the right-sided page, the page is laid out on the left-side page of the next page that contains the right-side page recording medium. The start page of the chapter is to be arranged on the back side of the recording medium.

  As described above, when double-sided printing is performed, it is sometimes uncomfortable that the page is arranged on the back side of the recording medium even though it is a chapter start page. On the other hand, the chapter start page is laid out on the right-sided page when double-sided printing is performed because the chapter start page is placed on the front surface of the recording medium. There is little discomfort compared to.

  Therefore, if a blank page for section separation is laid out on the right-sided page during double-sided printing, the blank page is exceptionally deleted, and the section that should originally be placed on the back side of the recording medium is deleted. It may be preferable to place the start page up on the same recording medium and lay it out on the right-sided page.

  Therefore, instead of the blank page output control process shown in the flowchart of FIG. 7, when the user sets the blank page output control process shown in the flowchart of FIG. You may make it perform in step S105.

  First, similarly to step S201 and step S202 in the flowchart of FIG. 7, from the page break information acquired by the page break information acquisition unit 121 of the print data D3 input from the data conversion unit 112 to the blank page detection unit 123, One entire page is read (step S301), and it is determined whether or not the current page is a blank page with no characters, graphics, images, etc. (step S302).

  If the current page is not a blank page (NO in step S302), the next page is referred to and loop processing is performed until a blank page is detected (steps S301 to S302). On the other hand, if the current page is a blank page (YES in step S302), whether or not the current page is an even-numbered page in double-sided printing (a double-sided left page, the back side of the recording medium), The print mode detection unit 125 determines (step S303).

  If the current page is an even-numbered page (YES in step S303), it is determined whether or not the attribute of the next page of the blank page is “chapter” or the start page of a chapter section separated by “section”. The page attribute determination unit 122 makes the determination (step S304).

  If the attribute of the next page is the start page of the chapter (when the analysis result is a specific result) (YES in step S304), it is determined whether the blank page has not been deleted and the process has been processed up to the last page (step S306). On the other hand, when the attribute of the next page is not the chapter start page (NO in step S304), the blank page is printed by the deletion executing unit 124, as well as when the current page is not an even-numbered page in step S303 (NO). It is deleted from the data D3 (step S305), and it is determined whether or not the process has been completed up to the last page (step S306).

  If the last page has not been processed (NO in step S306), the process from step 301 to step 305 is executed with reference to the next page. On the other hand, if the process has been completed up to the last page (YES in step S306), the blank paper output control process is terminated.

  In the blank page output control process according to the flowcharts of FIGS. 7 and 8, if a blank page is deleted by the deletion execution unit 124, the page numbers of the pages after the deleted blank page fluctuate. It is assumed that the page number recognized by the deletion execution unit 124 based on the page break information acquired by the acquisition unit 121 is a page number considering that point.

(Print control program)
The print control unit and the print control method according to the present embodiment can be realized by executing a program written in a predetermined language on a computer. That is, by installing this program on a computer such as a user terminal or a Web server or an IC chip and executing it on the CPU, a system having the above-described functions can be easily constructed. This program can be distributed through a communication line, for example, and can be transferred as a package application that operates on a stand-alone computer. Furthermore, this program can be installed in the printing apparatus, and printing control can be performed on the printing apparatus side.

  Such a program can be recorded on a recording medium readable by a general-purpose computer. Specifically, it can be recorded on various recording media such as a RAM card in addition to a magnetic recording medium such as a flexible disk or a cassette tape, or an optical disk such as a CD-ROM or DVD-ROM. The present embodiment is characterized in that a link can be provided for content in a non-writable CD-ROM or DVD-ROM.

  According to the computer-readable recording medium in which the program is recorded, the above-described system and method can be implemented using a general-purpose computer or a dedicated computer, and the program can be stored, transported, and installed. It can be done easily. According to such a print control program, a special processing apparatus is not required, and the existing information processing apparatus can be used as the above-described print control unit, and the print control method of the present invention can be easily implemented.

(Action / Effect)
According to this embodiment, when a blank page is detected, the attribute of the next page of the blank page is referred to, and the next page attribute is a sentence delimiter starting from a keyword such as “chapter” or “section”. If this is the case, leave the blank page as a blank page for chapter separation, and if the attribute of the next page is not a sentence separation part, it will be deleted as an unnecessary blank page. It is possible to delete unnecessary blank pages that are not intended by the user while leaving useful blank pages.

  In the present embodiment, the print mode detection unit 125 further detects print mode information that defines the layout assignment of each page of the document with respect to the print surface of the recording medium. The deletion execution unit 124 includes the print mode detection unit 125. According to the detected print mode, the allocation of the blank page and the next page to the recording medium is analyzed, and the blank page is deleted based on the analysis result. For this reason, for example, when the printing mode is single-sided printing, it is determined whether or not to delete the blank page with reference to the attribute of the next page of the blank page. In double-sided printing, the attribute of the next page of the blank page is determined. Whether or not to delete the blank page can be determined by referring to the allocation of the blank page on the recording medium. Accordingly, a blank page for sentence separation can be left when it is useful, and can be deleted together with a blank page that is not for sentence separation when it is unnecessary, corresponding to the print mode for printing on both sides of the recording medium. .

  In this embodiment, if a phrase or symbol (for example, “hen”, “chapter”, “section”, “section”, and “eyes”) indicating the type of chapter unit exists at the beginning of the page, Judged as a page with a chapter break attribute. However, a page with a section break attribute only when a word or symbol indicating the type of chapter unit exists at the beginning of the page and its size (font size, etc.) is larger than other words or symbols. It may be determined that the blank page before that is left.

1 (1a-1c) User terminal 2 Printing device 3 Printer server 7 Network 10 Arithmetic processing unit 11 Hard disk 12 Output interface 13 Input interface 13a Mouse 13b Keyboard 14 Communication interface 15 Bus 16 Display 101 OS
DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 102 Application 110 Driver 111 Control part 112 Data conversion part 113 Print data transmission part 120 Blank paper output control module 121 Page break information acquisition part 122 Page attribute determination part 123 Blank page detection part 124 Deletion execution part 125 Print mode detection part D1 Print setting data D2 Document data D3 Print data D4 Job data

Claims (5)

A print control unit for controlling output of print data of a document printed on a recording medium by a printing apparatus,
With respect to the print data, a page break information acquisition unit that acquires page break information that defines page classifications in which pages of the document are switched;
A blank page detection unit for detecting a blank page on which no image to be printed exists in each page of the document based on the page break information;
Based on the page break information, for each page, a page attribute determining unit that determines an attribute of each page by analyzing an image included in the page;
For the next page of the blank page detected by the blank page detection unit, refer to the attribute determined by the page attribute determination unit, and the attribute of the next page is a specific attribute that does not require the placement of the blank page on the previous page And a deletion execution unit that adds processing for deleting the blank page before the next page from the document to the print data.
A printing control unit comprising: A print mode detection unit that detects print mode information that defines an allocation of each page of the document with respect to a print surface of the recording medium;
The deletion execution unit analyzes allocation of the blank page and the next page to the print surface according to the print mode detected by the print mode detection unit, and as a result, the blank page is the recording medium in duplex printing. When the attribute of the next page does not correspond to the specific attribute, the processing for deleting the blank page before the next page from the document is added to the print data.
The print control unit according to claim 1. A print control program for controlling output of print data of a document printed on a recording medium by a printing apparatus by a computer,
A page break information acquisition step for acquiring page break information that defines page classifications for switching the pages of the document with respect to the print data;
A blank page detection step for detecting a blank page on which no image to be printed exists in each page of the document based on the page break information;
Based on the page break information, for each page, a page attribute determination step of determining an attribute of each page by analyzing an image included in the page;
For the next page of the blank page detected in the blank page detection step, refer to the attribute determined in the page attribute determination step, and the attribute of the next page is a specific attribute that does not require the placement of the blank page on the previous page And a deletion execution step of adding processing to delete the blank page before the next page from the document to the print data.
A print control program for executing a process including: Prior to the deletion execution step, the method further comprises a print mode detection step of detecting print mode information defining an allocation assignment of each page of the document with respect to the print surface of the recording medium
In the deletion execution step, the allocation of the blank page and the next page to the print surface is analyzed according to the print mode detected in the print mode detection step, and as a result, the blank page is the recording medium in duplex printing. When the attribute of the next page does not correspond to the specific attribute, the processing for deleting the blank page before the next page from the document is added to the print data.
The print control program according to claim 3. A print control method for controlling output of print data of a document printed on a recording medium by a printing apparatus,
A page break information acquisition step for acquiring page break information that defines page classifications for switching the pages of the document with respect to the print data;
A blank page detection step for detecting a blank page on which no image to be printed exists in each page of the document based on the page break information;
Based on the page break information, for each page, a page attribute determination step of determining an attribute of each page by analyzing an image included in the page;
For the next page of the blank page detected in the blank page detection step, refer to the attribute determined in the page attribute determination step, and the attribute of the next page is a specific attribute that does not require the placement of the blank page on the previous page And a deletion execution step of adding processing to delete the blank page before the next page from the document to the print data.
A printing control method comprising: